Why so many Problems?

[Digitalelectric]

we tried the soda bottle trap and baited it with a margarita snail... is that a home made trap you used, or can we purchase it somewhere? I'll have to try clam... we did lose a derasa in there, who didn't look too good for a few days then all of a sudden the shell has half empty, but I just don't get why everything (fish) would look so happy when the lights go out and we go to bed, then in the morning, poof, they're just gone...

Because these worms are nocturnal.

 

[Paul B]

Apparently I do everything wrong

I use an UG filter and add mud from the Long Island Sound, I have no test its, no quarantine/hospital tank and don't dose except home made calcium. Change 100 gallons of water a year and it is a 100 gallon tank.
Sometimes I feed bananas mixed with Plaster of Paris.
I also do a few things wrong. :dance:

 

[Palting]

My wife likes fish (we just ate cod)

LOL!!! Classic PaulB. You just gotta love it!!

 

[Paul B]

is that a home made trap you used, or can we purchase it somewhere?

Thats home made but very simple, basically a container with a tube stuck in it.
Bristle worms are not real bright, well most of them anyway. They can smell a clam a mile, OK a tank length away. Make the tube lay on the gravel near some rocks, they come out at night. If you catch one, there are fifty or 150.
There is nothing else in a normal tank that will eat a snowflake eel and not leave anything except maybe Godzilla and if you had him you would smell Japanese food on his breath.

 

[Saadatski]

Lets put it this way. There are more people complaining about their problems because most come here to do one of three things, sometimes all three.

1) Complain or ask advise for a problem.
2) Show a solution for a common problem many have.
3) Display their tanks and show it to others who take their results and try to replicate them.

Think about it. Not many come here just to simply say that their tank is fantastic. They might be proud of it, but still ask for improvement.

People don't call the police to tell them that they did not get robbed today!!

 

[IridescentLily]

lol Paul.
I am on the opposite side of the graph. I've actually cried once or twice in the past year because of things (which i no longer have) like cyano and zoa eating spiders. I'm trying not to get so upset anymore and working on not expect ling things to be fixed in a few days. Patience does not come naturally to me lol

 

[Paul B]

People don't call the police to tell them that they did not get robbed today!!

Well I think we should.
Virtually all of the problems posted have been asked many times. We should search for an answer first. Just my opinion of course and if there were not so many problems, I could not have started this thread and I would have to go outside where it is almost 100 degrees and trim my trees. So keep the problems coming.

I feel we should take a common sense approach to these "problems", especially the disease threads and try to prevent the problems before they become real problems.

Don't you think it is odd that there are so many captive fish that are sick?
Why is that? I bet they were healthy when they were in the sea unless they only collect sick fish. I don't think so. I think something happens to fish when we put them in a tank. I posted my thoughts on this, what do you think? I would be interested.

1) Complain or ask advise for a problem

Asking for advice is great and is what these forums are for. I think we should listen to the people with the experience with that problem and not someone who has a tank since tuesday and solved the problem because there isn't enough time to really figure if it worked or if it were just a fluke (no pun intended) Many experienced people on here have had every problem ever posted and their advice should be heeded but sometimes someone with experience tries to give advice and 100 people dispute that advice with no experience.
For an example I once posted that I run an undergravel filter. Almost everyone on this forum jumped on me with things like, you can't do that, it is old school, nitrate factory (that is my favorite) it grows algae, it crashes the tank, they smell, maintenance nightmare etc.
I am sure not one of those posters ever ran one the way I said I run it.
Then when I said it has been running for 30 some odd years, they all disappeared. You should have some experience in an area before you give advice or else state that you are just guessing but:
I am certainly not the God of fish tanks and I guess all the time when I don't know what I am talking about but I say that.
Well usually

 

[Paul B]

April, nice to see you here

I've actually cried once or twice in the past year because of things

April, I myself have cried a few times but not because my fish died or a huge flatworm ate my copper band butterfly. (yes, real men cry) I know these things are expensive and we certainly don't want to kill anything or make anything suffer but I do eat fish almost every day, cod last night and a great seafood restaurant by boat tonight so I know a bunch of calamari and clams have died this week because of me. Do I feel sorry for them? No.
I don't eat red meat so cows like me. Millions of tons of fish die each year in the hold of a ship as they have for thousands of years and if one of my animals die, I flush it. And thats it. I do get attached to them if I have them for many years but I doubt they feel bad for me if I get sick.
I don't even consider them pets but a hobby. Don't get the wrong idea, I take very well care of my animals as you know, some of them are older than some members on here and I try my best to keep them healthy even going so far as to spend time with them in the sea even if they come from Bora Bora, Hawaii or ther Caribbean. I have been researching these things all of my life and I am old.:sad2:
I have operated on them, removed tumors, cured PopEye, collected their food in scurvy tide pools, helped them nurture their eggs and provided them with a better home than I live in. Well maybe not, but close. :rolleye1:

But as I said, this is a hobby and should be fun and not just a list of problems.
These "problems are just situations that make this hobby interesting. How boreing would this be if anyone could do it and nothing ever went wrong?
Stamp collecting anyone? :lol:

Anyone noticing that I am ranting a lot lately? Hope I am not going Senile :spin2:

 

[Lwhite]

You'll know your going senile when you forget that your ranting

 

[Paul B]

You'll know your going senile when you forget that your ranting

What was that? I forgot what I asked. :sad2:
But I may be OK, My Mother didn't start to get senile until she was about 94 and lived to 99. :fun2:

 

[CoralReeferGal]

Sorry for turning your rant about problems into helping me solve my problem... lol i just sucked it up and bout a bristleworm trap at TFP, getting ready to set it and put it in the tank now... they said i can return it if it doesnt help, so I figure either a "free" experiment, or $10 well spent if it does solve the problem... Thanks for the advice!

 

[Paul B]

Sarah, it is not my thread, I am just the one here with the biggest mouth.
Put some clams in that trap, or at least a piece of fish
Let us know what you catch.

 

[CoralReeferGal]

will def keep everyone updated. It came with some freeze dried plankton as bait, should I not use that and go straight to clam? Also, if it took that much of our livestock out, is more likely its a big guy? The package says for small ones, the trap needs to be placed within an inch of their hole... but I don't know where the hole is anyway haha

 

[Lwhite]

I think critters are a lot more clever than we give them credit for. I would say at this point go big or go home (with the clam)... its like getting offered scraps or a steak.. you'll make a lot more of an effort to get the steak

 

[CoralReeferGal]

I think critters are a lot more clever than we give them credit for. I would say at this point go big or go home (with the clam)... its like getting offered scraps or a steak.. you'll make a lot more of an effort to get the steak

LOL true!! if hes been snacking on our fish for a year now, that makes sense; they's he gonna want some dumb ol freeze dried plankton...

 

[Fish Biscuit]

Thanks Paul for lightening things up. My tank is not fabulous but everyone is healthy. It's a little tank & even when I upgrade to the 28g it will still be little so I'll be selective & take my time stocking fish & corals.

I quite enjoy my little tailspot swimming over to say hello while I'm sitting at my desk working or not working as I write this post.

This is my first saltwater tank & there are some things that freak me out. My best guess is that my Yasha goby ended up with a swim bladder injury a few weeks ago & it pained me to see him struggling to stay at the bottom of the tank. By the end of day 3 I thought it was time to put him out of his misery & as I went to catch him he was trying as hard as he could to get back to the bottom so I figured that he wasn't ready to go yet. People here would think I'm nuts & they can but I fixed him with Reiki. By day 10 he was perfect.

All you can do is research everything & give the best fish home you can provide & hope for the best.

 

[Paul B]

freeze dried plankton as bait

Throw that out and use clam.

My tank is not fabulous but everyone is healthy

Thats the main thing, fabulous is for Supermodels.

By the end of day 3 I thought it was time to put him out of his misery & as I went to catch him he was trying as hard as he could to get back to the bottom so I figured that he wasn't ready to go yet. People here would think I'm nuts & they can but I fixed him with Reiki. By day 10 he was perfect.

Michele, that is cool. I would have strapped a piece of lead around him to get him to sink but your method is better

 

[tkeracer619]

Paul, you struck my curiosity. So... these are the 5 quotes from every thread I participated in that involved the word "fantastic". 2 of them are mine . 3 are about rock. A search for "problems" reveals 20 pages of threads (the max number returned) that I have participated in containing that word.

Yikes!! :sad2:

So what am I going to put in it? I am going to move my rock, fish, and corals from all of my other tanks into this one. It will be a mixed reef.

The rock that came with the tank had great coraline on it but I feel as if I have battled my way through hitchhikers and predators enough times already. All of my current stuff has coraline growth and plenty of good life..... I chose to bleach the new rock to remove all organic material, I will seed it with my current rock and cure it for 3-4 months. The results were fantastic!

Back then it was quite a bit dirtier than it is now, and people frequently complained of hair algae growing on it and it was already accepted practice to give it an acid bath. The results were fantastic and would recommend it to anyone. I had no algae issues with the acid bath. The rock is not truly ready to use and does need some help. Removing the po4 is easy, and I like the way tke is doing it. It also helps to break up the organics on the rock by softening them up.

If I had to do it all over again, I would do the LC method.

Yes you should cycle it before you use it. Pukani is dirty stuff. But it is FANTASTIC rock!

I swapped him for two small Ocellaris clowns! They look fantastic and I feel better that they are being kept in the right tank.. would love to find something for them to host but will have to wait and see as have another oubreak of cyano so will need parameters to stabilise more before any of the nicer corals go in...

Same here... so I used all 3 =D and have had fantastic results!

4x250W Halides (white), 4x54W T5 (blue), and 2x 160W VHO (actinic)

 

[breakdanc3]

Everyone has their own idea of what a reef tank should look like.. they get upset when things don't go their favor or if it doesn't look like tank of the month..

I think that's what makes this a true hobby .. everyone is always looking for the most efficient, fastest growing, least maintenance, most eye-popping amazing fish and corals.

I challenge you to make a tank full of drab brown corals. .hair algae . .and fish that no one wants to have in their tank. And make it look as ugly as u can .. then have that in your living room. i challenge u to do that .. i don't think anyone really wants to do that .. lol
<a href="http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l263/smccorry/Aquarium/?action=view&current=IMG_4996.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l263/smccorry/Aquarium/IMG_4996.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

that tank or ..

<a href="http://www.instablogsimages.com/1/2011/09/28/reef_tank_corals_iaspz.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.instablogsimages.com/1/2011/09/28/reef_tank_corals_iaspz.jpg" border="0" alt=""></a>

 

[ken55]

<a href="http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l263/smccorry/Aquarium/?action=view&current=IMG_4996.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l263/smccorry/Aquarium/IMG_4996.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Nice tank. If that tank had a wooden stand I'm sure it would never have any of those problems.:bigeyes:

Just kidding of course.